A couple of years after the deportation, the Spanish needed a bit more space. As a result, they turned Aruba into something which they dubbed a 'Rancho'. This basically meant that a number of animals such as donkeys, horses, pigs, sheep, goats and cattle were free to roam the land. Most of these animals had been imported from Spain, and of course, the Spanish needed to work out where they could store them. A few Spanish people came to live with the animals, and a few of the Native Indians were returned who would slave away on the Rancho ensuring that it stayed in perfect condition.

Around this time, the Dutch done the same as the Spanish did all those years ago and start exploring the world. They weren't on the search for rich resources though. Oh know, they were on the search for salt to power their booming herring fishing industry. Now, in the past, they were able to source this from Spain and Portugal. This was great, until the relationship soured between the countries, leading to the famous eighty year war, which as the name suggests, lasted eighty years! During this time, they needed to look to the Caribbean for their salt resources. Of course, they may have been able to pick some up from closer to home, but hey, if you have the chance to go to a really hot location to do your work, you would too right?

Now, as the Dutch began to gather more and more salt in the area, they were sending more and more people over there. At this time, the Dutch didn't really have a base of operations to call their own. That all changed though when the Dutch discovered Curacao in 1634 and began to conquer it. This was the base of operations for the Dutch throughout the eighty year war. Of course, with an island being flanked by two others that were owned by your enemy, something needed to change, thus the Dutch took the easy option and conquered both Bonaire and Aruba to stop the Spanish Armada coming close.

In the first few years of Dutch occupation, the Dutch done more for the islands than the Spanish had ever done. One of the first ventures here away from military action came from the Dutch West India Company, or the WIC. Their job was to develop the islands into an agricultural colony, something which the Spanish had been reluctant to do before, mainly because they believed the land wasn't good enough for it. Aruba was given the task of looking after horses and goats. In the early days, there were so many goats here, Aruba managed to earn itself the nickname 'Goat Island'. The Dutch were also a pretty industrious lot, and they discovered wood known as 'Brasilwood'. All of this was sent back to Amsterdam where convicts were given the task of changing it into something awesome. In this case, a material for red paint, which as we all know is incredibly useful!

Even though the Dutch were in control of the island, there was very little to no Dutch inhabitants here. There was a commander in control of the island from Holland, who had their own assistants, but the only people who officially residing on the island were the native Indians. Their job was to keep a check on the cattle in the area, and also cut down the wood. It is believed that they were actually paid for both of these jobs, which does mean that they weren't slaves.

**** End of part 4 ****

Back in the 15th Century, there were a number of expeditions away from Europe by the , hence why Spanish tends to be a massive influence around the South American regions. Around this time there were two great Spanish explorers, Alonso de Ojeda and Amerigo Vespucci. It is unlikely either of them met each other, in fact, neither probably knew who the other was. However, the both had a key role to play in the discovery of Aruba, mainly because historians do not know which one discovered Aruba first. We know that it was discovered by the Spanish in 1499, along with the rest of the surrounding islands, but we don't know who done it. Recent maps and drawings have surfaced which point to Amerigo Vespucci being the first Spanish person to step foot on Aruba, but this cannot be proven. So for now, just assume that at least one of them discovered it!

So, the Spanish have now found the island, and it is time to give it a name. I must admit, they were very original back then. They decided to call the islands 'The Islas de Los Gigantes'. Anybody who has done even basic Spanish should know what that means, but if you don't, it literally translates to 'The Island of the Giants'. So, why did they do this? Well, because the people who originally inhabited the islands (the aforementioned Indians) were actually very tall, especially compared to the Spanish. See, very original right? The whole region tended to be known as the 'Islas Inutiles'. This literally translates to 'useless islands'. So, why did they call it that? Well, because there was no gold, silver or places to farm on the island, well, at least they thought. We will come to that a little bit soon.

At the start, the Spanish and the Indians co-inhabited. It wasn't the best relationship due to the language barriers, but it was functional as the Spanish didn't really have any usage for the island, and thus they didn't hang around here too much. In 1513 they suddenly came up with a use though, and this is something that would surprise many of the Indians that inhabited Aruba.

As you probably know, the Spanish were very industrious. This means that that around the world they had set up a number of mining outfits at the places they had conquered in the past. Santo Domingo was one of them. Here, they run a couple of Copper Mines. During the early years of these copper mines, they were run by the original Indians of Santo Domingo. Sadly though, disease brought over from Europe managed to wipe all of these native Indians out. I am sure the harsh treatment by the Spanish didn't help too much either. Anyway, the Spanish deported all of the Indians from Aruba, leaving it uninhabited for the first time in thousands of years. The islands would remain like this for a while yet with the Spanish only dropping in once in a while to see how everything was going.

**** End of part 3 ****

As I mentioned previously, there is very little that is actually know about the first people to reside on the island of Aruba, but there are a number of archaeological digs going on in the area on an almost constant basis to determine a little bit more about the people. What we do know however is that the area for inhabited for many hundreds of years before the Spanish arrived (more on those a little bit later on). In addition to that, we know that that the people who settled here were known as the Arowak Indians, and for the most part they shared a similar culture to the nearby continent of South America. This has been determined by the style of drawings in the many caves here, and of course, the fact that the dead ended up being buried in large urns. This is something that we also saw in the Amazon rainforest, which does sort of indicate that the inhabitants came from around this area, or at least they were joined at a later point where the cultures began to merge.

Other studies have shown that people could been inhabiting the area from around 2500BC. At this time they tended to be a purely hunter and gatherer society, although there also appeared to be a bit of structure in the society. Other findings have shown that men tended to hold a prominent place in society. Over time, the society became a lot more advanced, with signs indicating that they began to produce pottery, this was around 900BC.

Over the years, there have been a number of digs near Venezuela, particularly around Coro. A lot of pottery was dug up around here, which did bear a resemblance to the pottery which had previously been found in Aruba. The methods for making this property was also fairly similar to those that lived on Aruba, not to mention similar tools, and of course cultures.

Digs have been going on in the area of Aruba for at least two hundred years, with some of the most revealing happening between 1880 and 1886. As you can see from what I have mentioned previously, it certainly isn't easy to determine who the original inhabitants were. Although it is likely they were from South America, and it is also likely that they came from a number of different parts of South America and let their cultures merge. Who knows, maybe at some point in the future, there will be that one big find on an archaeological site which shows us exactly who this people were, and perhaps more importantly, why they even ended up coming to the island in the first place.

Now we are going to fast forward a few years, many hundreds in fact, to find out a little bit about one of the most defining points in the history of Aruba, Spanish rule.

**** End of part 2 ****

Starting from today, In-Aruba.Com is rolling out a summary about the rich history of Aruba.
The summary contains the following subjects: